Our new (sort of) head of state

Hundreds of people, including film-makers Sir Peter Jackson and Reddy’s former neighbour James Cameron, were at Parliament’s grounds on Wednesday morning.

Reddy, who succeeds Sir Jerry Mateparae, accepted the Rakau Tapu ceremonial challenge and was welcomed to the ceremony.

She and husband Sir David Gascoigne then met with mana whenua for hongi, several short haka and met Prime Minister John Key.

Pomp and ceremony continued as she moved to the saluting base, receiving a general salute from the Royal Guard of Honour and was then sworn in.

The formalities continued with Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias administering the affirmation of allegiance and affirmation of office.

Later, Reddy, 62, inspected the Royal Guard in front of Parliament.

Key then addressed the ceremony. He said governors-general in recent years had better reflected New Zealand’s diversity.

The first New Zealand-born governor-general was not sworn in until in 1967.

Reddy said she was happy to have been approached about the job. “I want to encourage greater diversity in our leadership,” she said.

“When the prime minister first asked me if I would consider being New Zealand’s 21st governor-general, he pointed out that the role would provide me with a unique opportunity to make a worthwhile and lasting contribution to New Zealand and the lives of New Zealanders.

“That was a challenge that I could not easily ignore.”

The national anthem was played, while the air force band also played Pokarekare Ana, understood to be Reddy’s choice, and the New Zealand Opera Chorus sang Hine e Hine.

In her new role, Reddy is commander-in-chief of New Zealand’s armed forces and the Queen’s representative in the Realm of New Zealand, which includes Niue, Tokelau, the Cook Islands and the Ross Dependency in Antarctica.

Reddy thanked her husband, whom she called her “confidant and adviser”.

The new governor-general also thanked other family members, friends, and previous governors.

She made special mention of immediate predecessor Mateparae, and Dames Cath Tizard and Silvia Cartwright, New Zealand’s first and second female governors-general.

She approached her role with “some trepidation, but also enthusiasm”, she said, after spending about six months preparing for it.

Cameron told NZME that Reddy was an “astonishingly talented and competent woman”.

“We got to be quite chummy … She has got a big vision of what she can do as governor-general.

“She has done a good job with everything she has ever done, and she has done an awful lot of things.”

Dame Patsy is out 21st Governor-General, or our 36th if you include the Governors also. She becomes our effective head of state, representing the Queen.

Kimbo

The office of GG prevents the meddling and constitutional headaches of the alternative – an executive President, aka an elected monarch with power that needs to be continually checked by a constitution applied by noble lawyers (as if!), astute politicians (a big ask!), a hard-working media (an even bigger ask), a wise public…and in the worst case scenario, the military.

Give me stable Westminster government every time. It suits our national temperament and culture, as well as being in sync with our political and social evolution. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! No matter what Sir (sic) Geoffrey Palmer recommends!

King Big Ears I comeing soon in a coronation near you.
Your opinion might change .
I fail to see why we would give any more power to a president than we do to the GG.
The power of the monarch is proscribed in law.
She has none to speak of within our democratic system .

Not really. The Queen and Governor General have a lot of power, but they choose to accept the government’s advice on how to exercise it. If you make the office political with campaigning and voting, that could change.

cmm

It really comes down to what the constitutional role of the president is.

Some nations have presidents that are more or less ceremonial – much like the British monarchy. Examples of this are what South Africa was back in the 1970s or so, Israel etc . They don’t really do anything on a day-to-day basis – that’s left to the Prime Minister and parliament.

Others (eg. South in more recent years, etc) the President is effectively just what the Prime Minister is here. Head of the elected body.

Others still, (eg. USA) the president is a whole extra level of active government that can hinder the other government bodies. A reason it is almost impossible for the USA to make effective laws.

So depending on what sort of role the president gets, you’ll get different amounts of dabbling and different outcomes.

waikatosinger

What is missing in your analysis is a consideration of stability and change. Presidents tend to accrue more and more power over time and presidential systems have a tendency to gradually evolve into elected dictatorships.

Dave Mann

Not being a white male is the most important part of the job…. to encourage ‘diversity’. As we know, diversity is a wonderful tool for destroying cohesion, so the government’s agenda is going to be a raging success.

AgentBallSack

Liam H

There is actually some controversy in Australia and, to a lesser extent, Canada about who the head of state is. I don’t think this confusion really exists in New Zealand since the Constitution Act provides:

“2 Head of State
(1) The Sovereign in right of New Zealand is the head of State of New Zealand, and shall be known by the royal style and titles proclaimed from time to time.

(2) The Governor-General appointed by the Sovereign is the Sovereign’s representative in New Zealand.”

alwyn

I would go back to appointing British Peers to the job. They used to give us things and then at the end of their term they would bugger of back to England and no longer cost us anything.
Where do you think the Plunket Shield came from?
Or the Bledisloe Cup and the Ranfurly Shield?
Or the Treaty House and grounds?
All we have now is a long string of former GGs, and their spouses, who continue to receive the use of the VIP limos and their generous pensions for, seemingly, ever.
Bring back the Brits, I say.

Jack5

Our constitutional monarchy is the most stable, the least bureaucratic, the most efficient, the lowest-overhead, and the cheapest political system in the world.

The facts that we get our monarchical representative very cheaply and that this representative has virtually no power make it tops. We have the benefits of a pseudo republic without the extra layer of government that comes with a true republic.

mikenmild

Jack5

AgentBallSack

Even though he Klarkkkkulas #1 fan, Milky is not enamoured of our new GeeGee. Accordingly he is worried that as the fairer sex she will need a man to help her do her job, and require constant trips to the hospital for scissor cuts and freebleeding.

Jack5

Dave, she didn’t join Brierley until after his early days raiding companies whose accounts didn’t reflect the true value of assets in years of high inflation. Here’s part of her background details from the Beehive site:

In 1987 she joined Brierley Investments Ltd as group legal counsel and subsequently became group manager for special projects. During her 11 years at Brierley Investments she was involved in numerous mergers and acquisitions, including the privatisation and subsequent flotation of Air New Zealand, and the construction, establishment and flotation of Sky City Entertainment Ltd. She represented Brierley Investments on the boards of both of these companies following their listing and continued to serve on the board of Sky City Entertainment as deputy chair until 2008. In 1999 she and two colleagues co-founded Active Equities Limited, a private investment company.

Active Equities backed some good companies, and must have been a great investment for those lucky enough to have money in it.

dave_c_

She cannot avoid having to consider making some statement about open borders – after all, she is the queens representative, and look at what the queen permitted in the UK (before Brexit put a nail in that coffin)